Exclamations in english and vietnamese – a contrastive analysis”

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
I. Rationale
Man is a mixture of social relations, his mental life is really many-sided, and the levels of
emotion tones are abundant, too. The fundamental tones of emotions can be ranked according to
the following three categories:
(+) Positive: interest, joy.
(−) Negative: sadness, anger, contempt, fear, shyness and guilt.
(∅) Neutral: surprise (since speaker’s surprise maybe negative or positive)
In daily conversations, expressions showing the speaker’s feelings in these cases have mono-
function (i.e. expressing what the speaker feels) but in other ones they function differently. They
do not only cover the earlier mentioned functions but they also reveal what the speaker really
means and would like through their exclamations. This desire of researching on functions of
exclamations will be fueled most effectively.
Through exclamations, the speaker’s feelings are expressed effectively. In Vietnamese settings,
one of the four types of sentences is exclamations and that type recieves little attention from
learners and thus, there have not been many studies on exclamations. So far, the research of
interrogatives, of imperatives and of the like have dominated, studying exclamations becomes
our interest then.
 (1997) with his thesis entitled “Hành ng Ngôn ng biu l trong câu cm thán
ca ting Vit hin i” set the first stage of exclamation studies. What he was interested in is
the expressives in Vietnamese exclamations. Later on, in the thesis of “
(2001), the consideration of
Vietnamese exclamations is taken into seriously. But actually, this thesis deals with the scope of
a study of conversation interactions. She focused on the exclamative function of each move in
each conversation without paying much attention to illocutionary force of exclaiming though it
is an illocutionary act in speech acts.
Moving on to the research of exclamations in English, most of them are done under the

considerations of syntax and the one of semantics. Especially, Porrtner P. & Zanuttini (2005)
have developed a series of research studying the semantic features of exclamations such as:
“Exclamative Clauses: At the Syntax-Semantics Interface”, “The Semantics of Nominal
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Exclamatives” or “Clause typing: From Syntax to Discourse Semantics-Exclamatives”. In terms
of pragmatics, there is only the research of Beijer F. (2001) entitled “Syntax and Pragmatics of
Exclamations and other Expressive/Emotional Utterances”.
All the above research shows that the writers have completed their work with most enthusiasm
and they have set a very good foundation to a better step_making research of exclamations
under three dimensions: syntax, semantics and pragmatics.
Knowing that language as a mirror of culture and ‘national character’, and that language is the
address of culture. Using Vietnamese, English or any other languages, people have thoughts and
emotion in common. They have also the same tones of emotion such as: anger, joy, happiness,
surprise, fear, disgust, despeakerair … However, the ways of expressing it out are different. One
can use gestures to show their attitude or feelings while the others may use facial expressions
but the most common and important means is language. Through utterances, people express
their shock, surprise, fear, anger, admiration … and these utterances are called exclamations.
Studying functions of exclamations in terms of linguistic dimension in general and in English as
well as Vietnamese in particular to find out equivalents and differences leads to the topic:
“Exclamations in English and Vietnamese_A Contrastive Analysis”.
II. Aims and scope of the study
This study is aimed to answer the questions such as: whether the culture background in Vietnam
and Britain has an impact on the ways people exclaim, whether the features of syntax, of
semantics and of pragmatics in exclamations of the two language are the same…
Concerning the scope of this study, exclamations in the two languages are considered in terms
of syntax, of semantics and of pragmatics.
It is necessary to narrow the scope of this writing like that: the exclamations of the two

languages in written forms are mainly based on, but not in the oral ones. Therefore, when
studying the intonation of exclamations, the focus is on the clues of exclamation marks (!)
which appear at the end of exclamations.
III. Methods of the study
In order to have the theoretical background knowledge for this topic, some typical methods are
used:
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- Induction: data collected from sources: literature review of the subject, theoretical
background and survey’s results.
- Descriptive: used to describe the particular mistakes when people exclaim and the features
of syntax and pragmatics of exclamations in English and Vietnamese.
- Contrastive analysis: this method is applied to point out the differences and similarities in
the ways people from different culture background exclaim.
- Questionnaire: this is used to collect the reliable data from non–native language learners
and study the habits in using exclamations of Vietnamese students.
IV. Research Questions
1. Under the same feelings of anger, joy, disgust, surprise, fear… do English and
Vietnamese express their emotion in the same ways?
2. Are there any similarities and differences in the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic
features of exclamations in English and Vietnamese?
3. Do the differences of culture background have an impact on the ways people
exclaim?
4. Which kinds of English exclamations are Vietnamese students interested in ?

V. Design of the study

Part A: Introduction

The introduction presents the rationale of the study, the scope, the method and the design of the
study.
Part B: Development
Chapter 1: An overview of exclamations
The literature on exclamations is reviewed including the literature on sentence type and on
illocutionary force of exclamation devices.
Chapter 2: Exclamations under the syntactic consideration
This chapter investigates the syntactic feature of exclamation. It is concerned to examine
classifications and the main forms of exclamations in the two languages.
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Chapter 3: Exclamations under the semantic consideration
The criteria and the semantic meanings of exclamations are explored in English and in
Vietnamese respectively.
Chapter 4: Exclamations under the pragmatic consideration
This chapter deals with the pragmatic features of exclamations as well as the roles of exclaiming
in different situations for the pragmatic use.
Chapter 5: Survey’s results and suggested solutions
Based on the questionnaires, the information of the habit of using exclamations of Vietnamese
students are presented clearly and provide some suggestions on language teaching process,
especially teaching how to form exclamations in English for the Vietnamese.
Part C: Conclusion
This part summarizes the features of exclamations under the considerations of syntax, of
semantics and of pragmatics. And the survey’s results are made concise in this part, too.
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
Chapter 1: An overview of exclamations
In this chapter, the research on the background of sentence in general and on exclamation in
particular is done. A brief review of the latter will be studied on, too.
1.1 Literature review of sentences
Alexandra Grammatical School (300 – 200 BC) has considered that sentences are the
combination of words to express complete thoughts. Sentences are the largest unit of
grammatical organization within parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, adjective…) are said to
function .
From the above definitions, the following are some main features of sentences:
- the largest unit of grammatical organization
- the basic unit of written English language communication
- constructed by grammatical rules
- express a thought and the speaker’s feelings and attitude.
1.2 Sentence classifications in English and Vietnamese
In English and Vietnamese, most of the grammaticians share similar classifications of sentence
in terms of structures and of purposes.
1.2.1 In terms of structure
In terms of structure, sentences are divided into three categories:
+ Simple, compound and complex
(1) She is a good teacher. (Simple sentence)
(2) I bought her some flowers, but she did not like them. (Compound sentence)
(3) The film that interested me was about a petition. (Complex sentence)
+ Complete and incomplete
(4) I’m glad to see you. (Complete sentence)
(5) Glad to see you. (Incomplete sentence)

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+ Major and minor
(6) Hands up! (Minor sentence)
(7) We like to parties. (Major sentence)
1.2.2 In terms of purposes
Sentences may be classified in terms of purposes:
A declarative sentence is used to make a statement.
An interrogative sentence is used to pose a question.
An imperative sentence is used to give a command or to implore or entreat.
An exclamatory sentence is used to express astonishment or extreme emotion.
(8) How happy we were when the dawn came and our flag was still there!
(9) How did you do your hair! (exclamation formed as a question)
(10) I just won 500 dollars! (exclamation formed as a declarative sentence)
The same classifications of sentence are found in the sentence theory of Quirk et al (54: 6),
sentences may be divided into four major clauses, whose use correlates with different
communicative functions: statements, questions, commands and exclamations.
(11) We’ve got a new motor. (statement)
(12) Have you got a new motor? (question)
(13) Buy us a new motor. (command)
(14) We’ve got a new motor! (exclamation)
1.3 Minor types of simple sentences
Most grammarians have chosen to describe exclamatives as either one of the major clause types
on par with declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives, or as a minor clause type. This is not
surprising since utterances lacking inversion, beginning with “what” and “how” do not function
in the same way as ordinary declaratives or interrogatives.
We know, however, that declarative clauses, for instance, can be used to fulfill many different
functions in natural languages, i.e. there is no one–to–one relation between language form and
language function. Consequently, exclamations need not be of a clause type, but may instead be
a pragmatic phenomenon, a claim comes from the fact that those who consider exclamations to
be of a sentence type (e.g. Quirk et al. 1972, 1985) have to introduce minor sentence types

having the same exclamatory function as the sentences they call exclamations.
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Quirk et al. (1972) recognize four major classes in which simple sentences may be divided, and
the division seems to have been made on the basis of (syntactic) form and (pragmatic) function:

(i) Statements: sentences in which the subject is always present and generally precedes
the verbs such as “Kama will come here today”
(ii) Questions: sentences marked by one of the following criteria:
a. The placing of the operator in front of the subject, as in “ Will Kama come here
today?”
b. The initial positioning of a wh – element as in “When will Kama come here?”
c. Rising question intonation as in “Kama will come here today?”
(iii) Commands: sentences which normally have no overt grammatical subject and whose
verbs are in the imperative mood, e.g. “Come here today!”
(iv) Exclamations: sentences that have an initial phrase introduced by “what” or “how”
without inversion of subject and operator, e.g. “What nice clothes she wears!”
1.4 Definitions of terminologies
One of the most important steps is to take all the definitions of terminologies concerning
exclamations into a consideration. Most of them are listed as follows:
Exclamations: They are sentences that express strong feelings (for example how you feel
when you are happy, angry or surprise…). They begin with a capital letter and end with an
exclamation mark (!)
Exclamatives: Radford (1997:506) has defined an exclamative as a “a type of sentence
used to exclaim surprise, delight, annoyance etc.”
Expressive: in Searle’s speech acts, they principally express social interactions with the
hearer
Emotive: they are directly emotive utterances lending some features from expressives

Interjections: they are exclamations used to express emotion in a natural, uninhibited
way, and are not part of speech in the same sense as the words we have discussed; that is,
entering into the structure of a sentence.
Emotional / Expressive utterances: they are utterances in which the speaker in question
is emotionally involved, and in which this involvement is linguistically expressed by means of
intonation or by the use of performative expressions.
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1.5 Exclamations
With regards to the source of the word “ to exclaim”, it comes from the Latin word “exclamare”,
which in its turn, and is the combination of “ex” and “clamare”. “Ex” means “ out of, from” and
“clamare” means “to cry out”. Therefore, an exclamatory sentence is a statement of a complete
thought or a way of thinking that show a great and usually sudden emotion of some kind. More
clearly, David Crystal (49: 23), exclamations are sentences, which show that a person has been
impressed or roused by something. For example, visiting someone’s house for the first time, the
admiration or interest are expressed with the following utterances:
(15) - What a beautiful house you have!
(16) - It is such a nice house!
(17) - Your house is so nice!
(18) - Nice house!
(19) - How nice a house!
(20) - Isn’t the house nice!
(21) - So nice a house!
All the above sentences are exclamations because they convey strong feelings of speakers
towards something. And here, it is a nice house.
1.6 Exclamations with illocutionary force indicating devices
Exclamation in written form is mainly discovered and studied in this study and due to this
written form, the interlocutors can get many useful hints when communicating. These hints are

IFIDs ( Illocutionary force indicating devices), and as suggested by the term, they are the ones
that transfer illocutionary force to both the speaker and the hearer. Based on these tokens, IFIDs
help interlocutors to the appropriate strategy for everyday conversations.
1.6.1 Basic structures: “How + Adjective!” and “What + a/ an + Adjective + Noun!”
Once mentioning hints of exclamations, “How” and “What” are regarded as master keys to learn
their derived forms such as:
“How + adjective + S + verb!” as in “How tall she is!”
“How + adjective!” as in “How generous!”
“What + a/an + N!” as in “What a nuisance!”
“What + noun!” as in “What luck!”
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“How” and “What” are known as the basic components of exclamations. Positioning right at the
beginning, their function is to monitor the remaining components in sentences. It is the
structures of “how” and “what” that are the basic hints to know its sentence type. These wh–
elements have an utmost significant role so communicators make best use of these hints in their
interactions.
1.6.2 Interjections
Interjection is a big name for a little word. In other words, interjections are short exclamations
like “Oh!”, “Um!” or “Yeah!”… When interjections are inserted into sentences, they have no
grammatical connection to the sentences. They often express emotions in a natural, uninhibited
way and they are more recognizable in their written forms as they tend to be accompanied by
exclamation marks(!).
It is noteworthy that almost any words may be used as an exclamation, but they still retain their
identity as noun, pronoun, verb…
(21) - Books! Lighthouses built on the sea of time. (noun)
(22) - Halt! The dust brown ranks stood fast. (verb)
(23) - Up! For same! (adverb)

(24) - Impossible! It cannot be. (adjective)
Next, we will study the interjections in detail through the following table:
Interjection

Meaning Example
Expressing pleasure “Ah! That feels good”
Expressing realization “Ah! Now I understand”
Expressing resignation “Ah, well, it can’t be helped”


Ah
Expressing surprise “Ah! I’ve won!”
Alas
Expressing grief or pity “Alas! She’s dead now”
Expressing pity “Oh dear! Does it hurt?”
Dear
Expressing surprise “Dear me! That’s a surprise”
Eh
Expressing surprise “Eh! Really!”
Expressing greeting “Hello Khanh! How are you today?”
Hello
Expressing surprise “Hello! My car’s gone!”
Hey
Calling attention “Hey! Look at that!”
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Expressing surprise, joy… “Hey! What a good idea!”
Hi

Expressing greeting “Hi! What’s up!”
Hmm
Expressing doubt, hesitation or
disagreement
“Hmm, I’m not sure”
Expressing surprise “Oh, you are here!”
Expressing pain “oh, I’ve got a headache!”
Oh
Expressing pleading “Oh, please say ‘yes’!”
Ouch
Expressing pain “Ouch! That hurts!”
Uh
Expressing hesitation “Uh…I don’t know the answer to that”
Expressing surprise “Well I never!”
Well
Introducing a remark “Well! What did he say?”
Table 1: Types of interjections (49: 23)

1.6.3 Intonation
Intonation is one of the factors that make great contributions to create exclamations in both
English and Vietnamese. Compared with statements, melodic contour of exclamations is not
greatly different. The differences stay in words that carry the lexical meaning in which people
show their emotion or feelings…
(25) - That’s so funny!
(26) - What a beautiful day!
As far as exclamations concerned, depending on the falling tone or rising one, one can read the
speaker’s mind (whether he means well or not) and his emotion (whether he is happy or
disappointed with something). The following utterance is an example to discover levels of
emotion according to layers of tones: You home! 

If the speaker uses a falling tone, it shows that the speaker’s friendly attitude and
we know he means a goodbye in saying that.
If the speaker uses a rising tone, there can be two ways to understand this utterance.
It might be a question to ensure the addressee’s leave and it might also show the
speaker’s upset and he makes no bone to ask the addressee to leave immediately.

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1.6.4 Exclamation mark (!)
If intonation is a signal of exclamations in spoken language, in written one it is an exclamation
mark (!). Exclamation mark is one kind of punctuations, which helps writers express their
intention exactly and logically.
(27) - She is so tall!
(28) - How much I love Khathy!
However abundant forms of exclamations are, they convey one force, that is exclamatory force.
(29) - We are the champions! (as declarative sentence)
(30) - How do you risk? (as interrogative sentence)
1.7 Summary
In this part, it is significant to discover that the most common thing shared by the two languages
is that: when classifying sentence types, the criteria of purpose and of structure are on focus,
thus there are no differences of sentence subtypes between English and Vietnamese, the detailed
subtypes are complete or incomplete, major or non-major, simple, complex or compound
(ranking of structure) and statements, questions, commands or exclamations (ranking of
purpose). Then exclamations are studied in detail. In terms of exclamations, different scholars
have different opinions, however the most prominent one is cited from David Crystal’s work
(49: 20). According to this scholar, exclamations are sentences, which show that a person’s
feeling has been impressed or roused by something.
Thanks to researching in detail on exclamations’ definition, we are really enlightened by

encountering main IFIDs ( Illocutionary force indicating devices) in most of exclamations. The
importance of IFIDs is so high and everything comes from structures and no doubt, the ones
such as : “How + adjective!” and “What a + (adjective) + noun!” in English and “Adjective +
Particle!” in Vietnamese are the stable basements for learners to study further on exclamations.
These structures as useful hints, hence, they gain much attention. Besides structures, IFIDs are
also interjections, intonation, exclamation marks…
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Chapter 2: Exclamations under the syntactic consideration
Chapter 1 presents the first and foremost literature review of sentences and exclamations in
general so that in this chapter, exclamations will be studied in details, especially in terms of
syntactic functions.
2.1 An overview of exclamations
Exclamations are complete sentences that express surprise, excitement, or other strong emotion,
and this type of sentence always ends with an exclamation mark.
(31) - What a long time it has been!
(32) - How wonderful to see you!
(33) - What tall trees grow here!
Studying what exclamations are lead to the question whether the order of the sentence is
generally inverted. The subject and verb are placed near the end and followed by an exclamation
point.
(34) - How wonderful that is for you!
(35) - What a storm that was!
(36) - How beautiful is his wife!
(37) - What lovely teeth do you have, my dear!
However, exclamations do not always have a subject and a verb. Following are exclamations
that have no subject or verb.
(38) - What a lovely day!

(39) - Good dog!
2.2 Exclamations in English
2.2.1 Main forms of English exclamations
2.2.1.1 Declarative sentence
There is one type of exclamations that has its own characteristic word-order. With regards to
this type, the exclamatory adjectives “what” and “such” and the exclamatory adverb “how” are
used as introductory words. These words and the elements they modify position at the beginning
of the sentence; the remainder of the sentence follows in normal declarative order. An
exclamation as a declarative sentence have the following clues:
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Verb position: The finite verb comes second
Verb form: The finite verb is usually in the indicatives
Intonation: The voice is falling at the end of the sentence;
one word in the sentence bears a strong stress.
(51) - I hurt my head!
(52) - I just won 500 dollars!
2.2.1.2 Interrogative sentence
Concerning the above ideas, Sadock and Zwicky (1985:155) have claimed that exclamations is
of another minor sentence type; in form they resemble interrogatives.
(53) - How did you do your hair!
(54) - Wow, can he knit!
2.2.1.3 Imperative sentence
As another type, we may mention their imperatives, which in their turns, resemble imperatives:
(55) - Shit on you!
(56) - Screw you!
2.2.2 Classifications of English exclamations
Different scholars have different classifications, however in this writing we draw our attention

to the one of Beijer Fabian (2001) entitled “Syntax and Pragmatics of Exclamations and other
Expressive / Emotional Utterances”. According to his classification, English exclamations can
be divided into 6 subcategories: prototypical, ones with “so” and “such”, ones with “that”–
clauses and “to”–infinitive, one with DPs, exclamatory questions and derived forms.
2.2.2.1 Prototypical exclamations
Exclamations as a formal category of sentences are restricted to the type of exclamatory
utterances introduced by “what” or “how” and the two wh–words can be used to form the wh–
element in exclamations: “what” as predeterminer in a noun phrase and “how” as intensifier of
an adjective, adverb or clause. Wh-exclamations share some significant similarities with
interrogatives in requiring the initial placement of an exclamatory wh–element. The syntactic
order is therefore upset to the extent that the wh- elements (which may be object, complement,
or adverbial as well as subject) may be taken from its usual (statement) position and may be
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placed initially. For more and more similarities and differences, this demand will be met when
taking a look at the study of base forms of wh–exclamations.
A. Base forms “How + ADJ!” and “What + a/an + ADJ + N!”
“How” and “what” are the wh - elements and their parts of speech in particular situations are
analyzed clearly by Quirk et al. (1985: 833-834) as follows:
a. Wh – element as complement:
(57) - How delightful her manners are! (Cs S V)
b. Wh – element as adverbial:
(58) - How I used to hate geography! (A S V Od)
(59) - How quickly you eat! ( A S V)
(60) - What a long time we’ve been waiting! (A S V)
c. Wh – element as subject:
(61) - What an enormous crowd came! (S V - the rarest type)
d. Wh – element as object:

(62) -What a time we’ve had today! (Od S V A)
e. Wh – element as prepositional complement:
(63) -What a mess we’ve in!
(64) How foolish you must have thought I was!
From these above ideas, it shows that exclamations as a formal category, resemble wh–
questions when they begin with a wh–word (“what” or “how”), but differ from them in
retaining the regular declarative order of subject and verb. It is essential to have a comparative
analysis of wh–exclamations and wh–questions.
(66) - What beautiful the flowers she has!
(67) - How fast she runs!
Clearly, both exclamations and wh–questions share the presence of a wh–operator, reflecting
their shared need to denote a set of alternative propositions, but differ in whether a presentation
of factivity is present.
As we discussed above, there is generally no subject–operator inversion in English
exclamations. However, we still find the occasional inversion of subject and operator in literary
English, particularly with a proposed adverbial, subject complement, or direct object:
(71) - How often have I bitterly regretted that day!
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(72) - What magnificent characters does she present in her latest novel!
B. Variants of “How + ADJ!” and “What + a/an + ADJ + N!”
It is concluded that the variable forms of “How” and “What” are plentiful.
a. Derived forms of “How”
Clearly, the base form of “How” is: “How + adj!”
(74) - How fantastic!
(75) - How sweet his music!
And in practice, there are many variants of “how” and the following are these variants in brief.
a1. How + adjective + a /an + noun + (S + V)!

(76) - How fascinating a story!
(77) - How interesting the film we’ve seen!
a2. How + adjective / adverb + S + V!
(78) - How cold he is!
a3. How + S +V!
(80) - How you have grown!
(81) - How her foot bleeds!
b. Derived forms of “What”
And the same for exclamations with “What”:
b1. What + a / an + (adjective) + singular countable noun!
(82) - What a rude man!
(83) - What a surprise! (43: 103)
b2. What + (adjective) + uncountable noun / plural noun!
(84) - What nice weather!
(85) - What beautiful diamonds! I can get a lot of money from them. (43:103)
2.2.2.2 Exclamations formed with “So / Such”
A function similar to that fulfilled by “what a” in prototypical exclamation can be fulfilled by
“such a” and almost the same function as that fulfilled by “how” in prototypical exclamation can
be fulfilled by “so”.
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(86) - You are such a boy! (What a boy you are!)
(87) - We drank so much beer today! (How much beer we drank today!)
The constructions with “so” and “such’ are pragmatically similar to the constructions with
“what” and “how”. The words “so” and “such” in themselves indicate extreme positions on
scales and the utterances are regarded as exclamations though the structures with “so” and
“such” obviously declarative sentences.
“So” and “such” are intensifiers that premodify a noun phrase. The noun phrase is normally

indefinite and the intensifiers precede any determiners. “So” and “such” precede the indefinite
article but they require the noun phrase to contain a gradable adjective and the head of noun
phrase to be a singular countable noun. In this use, adjectives precede articles:
(88) I didn’t realise that he was so big a fool!
Stress is also applied to the determiner “such” and to the adverb “so” to give the exclamatory
force to a statement, a question or a command.
(89) - He’s such a nice man!
(90) - Why are you such a baby!
(91) - Don’t upset yourself so!
With reference to the wh–exclamations, the wh–word indicates an extreme position on some
scale of value, and therefore can only appear at points in the sentence where an expression of
degree is possible. The same functions are fulfilled by the emphatic degree items “such” (as a
determiner) and “so” (as an intensifier) in statement and question:
(92) - She has such a nice dog!
(93) - Why did you blame me so?
From above exclamatory utterances, it is concluded that “how” is like “so” in that when it is an
intensifier, it cannot modify an adjective which itself has a premodifying function. Thus, we
may propose how bossy or use “what” or “such” as intensifiers of the noun phrase: “How bossy
you are!” or “What / Such a bossy person you are!”
Once again, not only “how” and “what” but also “so” and “such” still have their particular
variants. Here are some common structures of exclamations using “so” and “such”:
a. So + adjective / adverb
(94) - So embarrassing!
(95) - She is so useless!
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17

The above examples show that the variant structures of “so” do not only stay alone and function
as an exclamation but these also go with other elements in sentences and “so” now becomes an

adverb in such exclamations.
b. So + adjective + a / an + noun
(96) - That is so bad a teacher!
At the first stage, we focus on this example and think that its structure is problematic. However,
this one is really special and used most in every exclamation.
c. Such + a / an + adjective + singular countable noun
(97) - He is such an intelligent boy!
(98) - Our headmaster is such a strict man!
From examples above, it may be wrong to conclude that the position of “such” is always in the
middle of sentences and function as adverbs in such exclamations. In fact, the above form “Such
+ adj + a/an + N!” can be isolated and it functions as an exclamation. For instance, one can and
more exactly often uses such a kind of exclamations in their everyday conversation.
(99) - Such a silly girl!
d. Such + (a / an )+ (adjective) + uncountable / plural noun
(100) - Such bad weather!
(101) - He is such a lovely school boy!
“Such” can match with other elements so that it takes the middle position or stands right at the
beginning of sentences.
2.2.2.3 Exclamative “that” – clauses
According to Rosengen, sub clauses used, as independent clauses must be analysed in terms of
the three sentence types. Rosengen (1997: 173), that–clauses and to–infinitive clauses used as
exclamations are actually declaratives used as exclamations. They do not include adjectives or
adverbs that indicate the extreme position on scales, but when someone utters exclamatory that–
clause, he conveys that the very existence of the fact in question is a deviation from a certain
norm. Rosengren (1997:176) has held that exclamatory that–clause does not require the same
stress pattern as other exclamations.
(102) That he should have left without me!
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18

Imagining whether the above example consists of no exclamatory mark “That he should have
left without me”, seems impossible. Clearly, the exclamatory mark indicates that this utterance
is spoken with an intonation contour that is different from the usual sub–clause intonation
contour. In addition, the scalar feature used to define exclamations above can be used to explain
exclamative function of these kinds of subordinated clauses as well. Exclamative that–clause
and to–infinitive clause are scalar in that they refer to states of affairs that the speaker reacts
emotionally to, since he finds them highly unlikely, extraordinary, or seemingly impossible.
2.2.2.4 DPs used as exclamations
Quirk et al. (1985: 11-53) have claimed that a DP can be used as exclamations as long as the NP
is modified by a restricted relative clause.
(103) - The way they obey him! (41:849)
(104) - The fuss they made! (41: 849)
(105) - The clothes she wears! (41:849)
According to them, these are non–sentences and the exclamative type naturally relies on the
intonation contour. Importantly, Quirk et al. (1985) have affirmed that DP–exclamations
generally express disapproval i.e. the speaker does not approve of the fuss they made or the
clothe style she wears. It is clear that the speaker finds the clothes extraordinarily ugly or
inappropriate, making reference to an extreme position on an imagined ugliness–scale. The
exclamatory interpretation is triggered by the intonation contour and the emphatic stress. The
speaker finds the states of affairs in question, i.e. the status of the clothes, to be a deviation from
a norm relating to the style of clothes.
2.2.2.5 Other forms of exclamations in English
a. Exclamatory noun phrases
As far as the exclamatory noun phrases concerned, they are modified by a restrictive relative
clause express disapproval.
(106) - The fuss they made! (41: 849)
(107) - The clothes she wears! (41: 849)
b. Exclamatory phrases consisting of a noun phrases
A pronoun is generally included in these exclamatory phrases, and this is always followed by

“and” and another noun phrase with a matching possessive pronoun:
- -

19

(108) - Him and his investigation! {I deplore the way he so frequently resorts to
investigation} (the subjective case is less commonly used for the first pronoun: He and his
investigation) (41: 849)
(109) - You and your malicious gossip! (41:849)
c. Exclamatory prepositional phrases
This type owns the phrase “of all” and this is used to express strong disapproval.
(110) - Of all the impudence! (41:850)
(111) - Of all the stupid things to say! (41:850)
d. Exclamatory noun or adjective phrases
Approval as well as disapproval is expressed by the exclamatory noun or adjective phrases.
(112) - Big baby! (‘What a helpless person you are!) (41:850)
(113) - Charming couple! (41:850)
In terms of the more familiar relationship, the possessive adjectives are used commonly such as:
“My cute baby!” or “My poor fiance!” but articles are used then, and in this example the
articles are omitted.
e. Exclamatory adjective clause
With or without wh–element, adjectives can act as exclamations.
(114) - Wonderful!
(115) - (How) good of you! (41: 428)
2.2.2.6 Exclamatory questions
Some sentences resemble questions in their structures but actually are used as exclamations and
express the speaker’s strong feelings. Despite the presence of negative elements, they are
definitely positive in meaning.
Quirk et al. (1985: 825) the exclamatory questions are interrogatives in structure, but have the
illocutionary force of an exclamatory assertion. Commonly, it is a negative question with a final

falling tone and the negation has to be clitic (n’t) in exclamations.
(116) - Hasn’t she GROWN! (41:825)
(117) - Wasn’t it a marvelous CONcert! (41:825)
- -

20

The speaker has strong feelings and these utterances are to invite the hearer’s agreement to the
speaker about that. Though the negators appear in the above examples, it is clear that the
meaning is totally positive and this is contrast to the appearance of “not” in the sentences.
Moreover, in order to express a strong positive conviction, the speaker can use positive yes–no
question with a falling tone as the following example:
(118) - Did he look anNOYED! (41:57)
(119) - Has she GROWN! (41:57)
Clearly, in spite of the negative or positive exclamatory questions, they share the falling tone in
any cases (however, in American English an exclamatory question can be pronounced with a
rising tone and uttered with the expectation of a response as in this example: “Wasn’t the
concert terrific!”).
The following are two examples:
(120) (1) Has SHE grown!
(121) (2) Hasn’t she GROWN!
Through the above examples, the difference is that (2) has the feature that is an appeal for the
listener’s confirmation, while the positive interrogative in (1) implies that the listener is in no
position. Also, Sadork et al.(1985) have come to conclusions that there is a slight difference
between positive and negative exclamatory questions. That is: the negative question has, as its
feature of meaning, an appeal for the listener’s confirmation. The positive, on the other hand,
implies that the positive response is self–evident, and would therefore be more appropriate
where the listener’s agreement would not be solicited, as in “Am I hungry!”.
Lastly, in English, a lot of exclamation examples with the forms are collected as follows:

Operation + (not) + Subject + Verb / Adjective?

(122) - Aren’t you lucky? (How lucky you are!) (35:56)
(123) - Didn’t we laugh? (How we laughed!) (35:56)
All told, the emotional utterances belonging to this category definitely do so, which means that
exclamations with interrogative form are exclamations according to the definition.
2.3 Vietnamese exclamations
2.3.2 Main forms of Vietnamese exclamations
- -

21

Before coming to the opinions of Dip Quang Ban (2004:214), which are on focus in this part,
stepping backwards to the main forms of English exclamations and it is shown that Vietnamese
ones share the same. Factually, in everyday conversations, exclamations are in declarative form
or in imperative one and even in interrogative one.
(124) - Ngi âu mà p th? ( Interrogative form)
(125) - Bài tp này khó tht! ( Declarative form)
(126) - ng ng ngn th! ( Imperative form)
Moreover, these forms by setting a stable foundation of knowledge concerning exclamations
enable to complete the study of exclamations in Vietnamese.
Being discussed by a lot Vietnamese authors and when accessing to the work of “Ng pháp
ting Vit - Phn câu”Dip Quang Ban (2004:214)it provides a better insight of sentence
types, especially exclamations. That is the reason why we, in our writing, focus much on the
opinions of Dip Quang Ban (2004:214) and it seems that his ideas rule out for the syntax of
Vietnamese exclamations. According to him, to study exclamations, we need to take syntax,
communicative function, mood and structure, and text as well into consideration.
In terms of syntax, exclamations consist of some minor clauses and they are the ones formed by
exclamatory expressions that function as a sentence with no syntactic features. Interjections are
the factors that have no lexical meaning and they are used as an indefinite sound, which are used

to express physical or mental reactions and have no representative meaning. For this reason,
exclamations are ungrammaticalized to separate subject or predicate in sentences.
In terms of communication, exclamations are used to express feelings caused by physical and
mental impulse (including reprimand, compliment, swear, … which have no direct
representative meaning ).
In terms of mood and structure, exclamations consist of only mood expression but not residue.
In terms of texts, exclamations are minor clauses and this type of sentence has no separation
between theme and rheme.
From the above three dimensions, it is affirmed that exclamations are special utterances and
based on these, and that Vietnamese exclamation expressions can be divided into the following
two types:
Firstly, they are exclamations used most commonly and purely. This exclamations of these
types are the words or expressions such as: ôi, i, ái, úi, úi chà, úi chà chà, , a…
!"#$%Chà! C to y nh! ng y hoá ra li b…!  &'"#$
- -

22

!"($%Ai chà! Nhà này có m cá ngon gm, chiu t phi xin mt bát my c !"'&$
!")$%Ui! au quá! !""'$
Special Vietnamese exclamations are phrases that have lexical meaning and idiomatic features
(i.e. the meaning hidden does not function directly). And the common expressions are “i cha
m i”, “tri i”, “tri i là tri”, “tri t i”, “tri cao t dày i”, “tri pht i”, “chúa i” or
… “b kh”, “cht”, “y cht”, “cht cha”, “cht cha ri” … and the colloquial swears such as :
“m kip”, “cái  khn kip”, “cái  cht tit”, “tiên s nhà nó”, “tiên s b nó”…
With regards to the second type, there are some common word classesreacting to bad news, for
example for moaning, such as: “ông i”, “bà i”, “con i”… In these situations, people often
use the added word “là” like “ông i là ông”, “bà i là bà”.
!*+$- i gii i! Anh! Quý hoá quá! (surprise) (54:27)
(131) - Cht cha! Tôi cng quên khuy i mt, ch y d!n c t" sang b bên kia th áy t hôm

qua . (regret) (56:23)
(132) - M kip! X bn vi c thng mõ… (swear) (54:27)
The above constructions are the common ones. Apart from these constructions, Vietnamese
exclamations are also formed with strongly emotional expressions. All exclamation expressions
have their own forms and they are independent of the remaining parts of a sentence (so we can
name them exclamation expressions).
Not all exclamation expressions function in the mood structure, but within the relation of mood
structure, exclamation is categorized in terms of exclamatory factors. Thus, we then pay much
attention to the factors, which have an impact on the exclamation classifications
2.3.3 Classifications of exclamations in Vietnamese
2.3.3.1 Exclamations with major particles – “thay, cho, thay cho”
The particles “thay, cho, thay cho” function in order to bring the exclamative modality to the
sentence and they exist as special elements forming expressions of exclamation mood. These
factors appear right after verbs or adjectives but there is no additional function for that verb or
adjective and they just make exclamations. When using “thay, thay cho”, the sentences have the
following features:
+ “Thay” is used more commonly in arts and “cho” is in daily conversations.
+ “Thay / cho” stand right after verbs, adjectives to express exclamatory content.
+ Sentences with “thay/cho” are formed according to the structure:
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23

Verb / Adjetive + thay / cho + Noun
(2:299)

It is hard to find out sentences that have “thay / cho” situated before verbs. When these two
factors are absent, the exclamations marked with the word position in which verbs or adjectives
standing before are words referring to a mental phenomenon.
!**$,Thng thay cng mt kip ngi

Hi thay mang ly s#c tài làm chi (57:45)
(134) - Kh" thân cho thng bé!
(135) - Vinh quang thay các v anh hùng dân tc! (2: 300)

Vinh quang thay các v anh hùng dân tc!









“Thay” in the above example is positioned in the middle of the sentence and it is regarded as
mood expression. Adjectives precede “thay” , it stands right before a phrase residue.
It is noteworthy that “cho” can be representative for this type though this is optional and “thay /
cho” can stand before verbs, which affirms that elements standing behind “thay / cho” are not
inversion subjects but the objects referring to the addressor and the addressee. In addition, marks
of objects like such elements are present in some sentences which are rare in modern languages.
(136) a. Bà nh$c thay cho ông cha nhà bà! (2: 300)
“Bàs repeated and this title form refers to a third person. It is, no doubt, a declarative and it is
easy to use “thay cho” instead of only “cho” to form a new declarative as in:
   -Bà nh$c thay cho ông cha nhà bà!
(a) and (b) are declaratives, however, interestingly when “bà” mentioned for the first time is
omitted, the sentence becomes an exclamation as in :
 -Nh$c thay cho ông cha nhà bà!
(c) is used when subject is the speaker and is to express a mental mood at the time of that
exclamatory utterance.

- -

24

2.3.3.2 Exclamations with interjection group “nh”
The word “nhis positioned at the end of a sentence and its function is really significant. It
appears at the end and is used to mark different levels of the speaker’s attitude. The following
examples prove this idea effectively.
(137) “B mày khôn nh!” 64:34$
(138) “Hôm nay tri p nh!”
2.3.3.3 Exclamations with extra elements referring to quantity or quantity idioms
These elements or quantity idioms function as extra factors and exist to express exclamatory
meaning for sentence. Many quantity extra-elements are positioned at the end of a sentence and
the most common ones are: l#m, quá, ghê, l tht, c%c k&, dng nào, nhng nào, bit
my…and even the pronoun “th”- In Vietnamese, we also add some most–used idioms for this
type such as: “ht ý”, “ht sy”, “cht i c”… These elements show a high degree of an
event and have meaningful relation with elements before them.
(139) - Lão già t l#m (54:27)
(140) - Con này gm tht! (6+"#)
(141) - Mà lòng tr'ng ngh(a khinh tài xit bao. (57:45)
(142) - Tt mi)n chê / Không chê vào âu  c! (4: 302)
!'*$ ,Tt kh*i phi nói! (4: 302)
(144) - T ht ch nói! (4: 302)
!'&$,Vui cht i c! (4: 302)
!'.$- Cu là ngi tnh l+ mà ch,ng hiu h'c l*m  âu c nhiu câu hát nhà quê th!

54:27$
In regards with the quantity element – “quá”, communicators use “quá” combining with
adjectives in order to show their extreme degree of emotion tones ( surprise, dismay, joy,
nervousness…), maybe “quá” is the common choice for them to express their utmost feelings.

(147) - Ph-c tp quá!
(148) - Yên t(nh quá!
In addition, it is remarkable that “quá” may be positioned at the beginning or at the end of
sentences. When the speaker uses the form “Quá + ADJ!” instead of “ADJ + quá!”, the content
of exclamations then becomes more and more emphatic.
(149) - Phô trng quá! ~ Quá phô trng!
- -

25

(150) - V$ li quá! ~ Quá v$ li!
Pronouns “th/ vy” (or n th / vy$are at the end of a sentence and they can go with other
pronouns “sao/ sao mà” and these pronouns are positioned at the beginning to form the
following expression. 
(151) Sao mà cái i nó tù túng, nó cht hp, nó bn tin th!  (54:27)

This example is clarified through the following structure:

 

 







   "*+*$
The above example proves that adjectives always precede “th”. This quantity extra – element

appears and makes sentences, especially exclamations, less general. It is this element that is the
prominent one and clearly without it, sentences are not exclamations any more. It is the
exclamatory element of that sentences.
2.3.3.4 Exclamations with interjections or exclamatory idiom
The interjections or exclamatory idioms are present together with residue and have experiential
meaning. Interjections and some idioms are used to form exclamation expressions but they do
not participate in the structure of mood structure. They function individually as part of a
complex sentence. In other words, these interjections function individually as sentences or
subordinates of sentences.

(152) , Ô hay, bà c- tng con ùa! ( 54:27)
(153) - i, …ôi chao i! ( 54:27)
(154) - ., anh ã v! (4: 215)
(155) - Ôi, bu"i tra nay tuyt trn n#ng p! (4: 302)
(156) - Ôi chao i! '*+*$

/01m “Ôi chao i!” ,its grammatical structure is analysed as an independent element.
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